pebblerocker | (no subject)

Cut for sad, involving animals not being alive any more. Don't click if the not-alive word still hurts.

I was driving home from work and I saw something like a rock in the road, but as I went past I saw it had flippers and I realised it must be next-door's turtle that escaped, but I was already past the turtle and very nearly at next door's driveway, so I turned into their driveway because someone's always home there and I could yell for them to come and get the turtle. As I turned in there was a man driving the other way and he had his window down so I yelled 'Be careful, there's a turtle in the road!' He might not have heard exactly what I said but he slowed right down. I looked at the next-door house and saw the windows were shut and no cars were there, so I backed out of the driveway quickly and went back up to where I'd seen the turtle. The man in the van had gone past and was at the end of the road and there was another car behind him, I think it came out of the side road so it didn't pass me, and the turtle was flat and dead in the road.

I could have rescued that turtle, it could still be alive and it's my fault it's not alive, if only I hadn't been a bit afraid of not knowing how turtles like to be picked up. I hate it when animals die and I feel so, so guilty and sad. I didn't know that turtle at all, I've never even met a turtle, but it was alive and now it's not and it's such a sad thing. I wish I had a time machine or I wish I'd seen it before I went past so I'd stopped, even if I decided it was too scary to pick up I could have blocked the lane and stopped it getting run over. I just wish I'd done it right and it wasn't too late, I can never make things better.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*HUGS*

Thank you -- much needed. *Hugs*

I'm feeling a bit better, the next day. I'm able to not think about it for stretches of time, and not feeling so down when I do -- a bit more detached and emotionally stable.

I'm really sorry - that must've been terribly upsetting, but you had the best of intentions and everyone gets nervous about what might be precisely the right thing to do. As soon as you saw it you were clearly thinking only of what you could do to help. I do hope you can be less hard on yourself in time: after all, there were lots of stages leading up to this, and probably someone's kicking themselves over not mending a gap in the fence or something as well.

That's such a shame- but while it's okay to feel sad, try not to feel guilt. It sounds like a horrible accident that happened really quickly and you're not to blame for that - as whatho says, there are chains of events that lead to things happenning, try not to blame yourself. Take comfort in the fact that it seems to have happened so quickly and that the turtle would have passed swiftly and without awareness.

It sounds to me as if you really hadn't time- by the time you realized what it was, the sensible thing was to try to get someone who understood the turtle. *hugs* You really, really tried. Very few people would have made an effort at all, beyond swerving around it, but I understand how you feel.

I still feel bad about a frog that got squished- oh, about 30 years ago- when I opened a shed door even though I had no way of knowing it was there.